Need Speed

Dutch Men, go figure. What's not to like about that? The only thing better is when there's two 5-foot nothing Aussie Women beating you. Maybe they just prefer the 5-foot fourteen women beating them.

My opinion of kicking and fins has always been that it is a personal issue. Just because someone likes Alas, Quattros, or whatever, doesn't mean it's the right fin for you (I think most players are kicking a fin that is too big for their kick). Same with Dolphin for breakaways. My flutter is faster than my Dolphin and I can repeat more using it so I rarely break out with a dolphin kick. On the reverse side I have known those that can Dolphin like an Olympian but flutter like a 5-year old. So which is better? Right, The one that works.

As with anything if you get the technique right, the rest will come in line. If you don't, with time you may be able to fight your way to efficiency, but it will take a long time.

You're better off using that time to analyze your kick and getting the "feel" is key. Do a lot of kicking and feel what each muscle, from your waist down, is doing on the downstroke and the upstroke. Figure out if you want, or if you're able as some ankles just aren't flexible enough, to give a little extra in your kick with an exaggerated ankle flex at the end of your downstoke and extension at the end of your upstroke. As you are working on the feel only go 5-8 meters at top speed to test and reinforce that feel. You need to stop before the technique fade hits. Stop and think about it as soon as you are done, then do it slow again to commit it to memory. And repeat, and repeat... you'll get it.

Once you get a good feel for your kick then you might want to work on kicking with a deeper knee bend. This will change the muscle useage and can help you recover while playing. You only need to have your speed kick for when it's beneficial to use it, at other times you should have a kick that is less strenuous.

What's critical in this is that you are kicking a fin that works for you, not against you. If you don't have the ankle/leg strength to kick a stiff fin, then don't. I used Mares HPs for all workouts unless I "was" training for a comp and then I would only use Alas for about the last month. My reason for that is that I could go longer while keeping a fast cadence with the HPs without getting stress injuries. I would lose out on top-speed, but so what? It was practice. But with that, the kick in Alas is a bit different. The blade is a bit wider so I would click the inside edges at first until I found the right leg angles to stop it from happening.

Duck
-- Trying to be more intellectual for Tan

One thing I've noticed about people who are really quick (eg Yongy) is that he gets his body up off the bottom to give his legs room to move. You definitely don't want to be kicking the bottom while you swim and maybe there is some kind of ground affect at work as well.

I think everyone makes valid recommendations here and, as you can see, there's plenty of variety there. As Duck said, it's about finding what works for you. Try plenty of different tecniques to find what make YOU faster.

When I started working on speed my coach made me do land based workouts to start with (sprints on a track) and told me to think about how I was going to get from A to B in the quickest possible time. To start with I thought big long powerful strides to cover more distance quickly. At the time I was extrememly fit and my coach well, not quite so, but he was still beating me over a short distance because he had better tecnique. He suggested I try and much shorter faster stride, all the time telling me to think about what I was doing. It worked and almost instantly I was beating him over that short distance. After that I started taking notice of sprinters at the Olympics and noticed their tecniques.

He then told me to take that way of thinking into the pool. How am I going to get from A to B in the quickest possible time? Low and behold, the same tecnique was true for the pool, shorter faster kicks. This results in faster acceleration which is what you need to put yourself that metre in front of the opposition. Once you've got to top speed that's when you can lengthen the kick and use your power.

Again as Duck said, make sure you do speed training over very short distances. If you are working on speed there's not a lot of point doing 50m sprints. Your legs have a nice lactic build up by the time you get half way and then you won't really be concentrating on your tecnique anymore. You should be starting with 6m, both from a standing start and from an already moving start. Then work up to 12.5m, try putting a puck in the middle and get to it as quick as possible.

All in all I think Kelly's 3 points are all very valid to improving speed, those plus a **** load of smart training! :lol:

Hey trace, mabey you just need get your fat hairy ass off the couch and stop drinking beer and you might have a chance!
Ha Ha
Nice avitar
Belle

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Underwater Hockey Rules!

-- Trying to be more intellectual for Tan

Keep trying Doug...I'm very impressed by all your intelligent comments and can't possibly believe it's the Doug that I know??????


So Trace...start swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks everyone for all the feedback. Is great to know that you all care! Anyway, the kicking if going better. Combination of swimming a lot more, building strength in legs, sprints on land, little mega fast kicks when i do kick, not big slow ones that are a bit complacent, and just hearing Tania's muffled snorkel scream to goooo when we were playing together.
I have been doing a fair bit of no fin swimming and also resistance kickboard work too.
Liked the suggestion to swim with little fins and so after Sthn Hemi's will try to play with those horrible little orange tiny fins for a couple of mths.
Have fun everyone and thanks again.
The Fat Cat. :twisted:

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Go Crazy

...try finning with your free hand when swimming the puck? might help a teency weency bit?

i find if you delegate yourself to go for the puck stike in every game(presuming thats if your a forward)
then you will get loads of practise in sprints maybe this will help your speed,you may find you self getting really tired in the game,
this will happen in the beggining as ur not used to giving that extra effort for the sprints but you will soon get used to it.

dont know if acceleration was mentioned in the previous quotes

its good to tweak up on the acceleration as opposed to having just speed.

try a few lenghts of

swimming under water slowly(lets say 3 or four kicks),then in an insant sprint for 3 or four kicks then slow again then sprint again

this will speed up the neaurons and muscle reaction in your body

acceleration is probably a lot easier and faster to learn than trying to get faster

wram up well and stretch well before this...

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top of de mornin to yeh

i find if you delegate yourself to go for the puck stike in every game(presuming thats if your a forward)
then you will get loads of practise in sprints maybe this will help your speed,you may find you self getting really tired in the game,
this will happen in the beggining as ur not used to giving that extra effort for the sprints but you will soon get used to it.

dont know if acceleration was mentioned in the previous quotes

its good to tweak up on the acceleration as opposed to having just speed.

try a few lenghts of

swimming under water slowly(lets say 3 or four kicks),then in an insant sprint for 3 or four kicks then slow again then sprint again

this will speed up the neaurons and muscle reaction in your body

acceleration is probably a lot easier and faster to learn than trying to get faster

wram up well and stretch well before this...

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top of de mornin to yeh